Attitudes Towards Gender Roles
GR measurement and a brief study
abstract: In western society the family structure is moving from a male breadwinner model to one in which the female partner works too, even if not to the same extent as the male one. Family is considered by many as the basic unit of society. Differences continue to exist in it due to different attitudes toward gender roles. one of the definitions of gender roles is: ”the beliefs individuals express regarding the role of men and women perceived as appropriate in a given institutional environment”. Gender role studies are important because they explore the nature, causes, and consequences of gender-role belief systems. Moreover, men’s and women’s attitudes have shifted toward more egalitarian ideologies since the 70s however, gender ideologies play a crucial role in work-family policy-making. There are many factors that can affect the attitudes toward gender roles, this paper takes into consideration just age, gender, and marital status in four countries: Germany, Finland, Portugal, and Slovakia. The results show that women are more egalitarians than men. Older people tend to hold less egalitarian attitudes. Different countries means also different cultures, secularization, and religiosity are factors that have a consistent influence on GR. Women experience double social pressure, one from society, and one from the family itself, women often find themselves in a position in which they have to choose between work and ambition and family. Creating a more egalitarian is fundamental to guaranteeing rights.
key words: Gender roles attitudes, Measurement, Germany, Finland, Portugal, Slovakia, ISSP.
1 Introduction
According to the EIGE (European Institute for Gender Equality) index, it will take nearly three generations to achieve gender equality at the current pace in the EU. Women still have different rights and opportunities than men. For example in Italy until 1981 there was a reduction of the punishment in case of a man that killed his wife, sister, or daughter if he prove that her behavior offended his honor. Women in the west country not so far ago were objectified as Figure.1 shows.
A definition of gender roles is the beliefs individuals express regarding the role of men and women perceived as appropriate in a given institutional environment. Even if the interest in this topic started in the ’70s, it is important to study attitudes toward GR because it keeps being a topic of extreme relevance, considering the actual decision of The U.S. Supreme Court, in the aftermath of its decision in recent weeks to overturn the landmark Roe vs Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. Another element that makes this topic relevant are the changes in the family structure changing from a male breadwinner model to a model in which both partners work even if the female partner does not work to the same extent as the male one. Last but not least in some other countries, women find themselves almost without rights, investigating this topic could be a way to raise awareness and Lay the foundation for a more equal society. With surveys, social scientists collect data to highlight what is the role that society attributes to women. Different questions are asked in the surveys creating different items that social scientists can use. For example, the ESS (European Social Survey) asks two questions that can be used to investigate GR: ”Women should be prepared to cut down on paid work for the sake of family” and ”Men should have more right to a job than women when jobs are scarce”. these questions capture the private sphere. The ISSP ( International Social Survey Program) provides more items, capturing specialized and androgynous attitudes.
This short paper aims to introduce the measurement and provide some basic statistics about attitudes toward gender roles focusing on four countries: Germany, Finland, Portugal, and Slovakia. Each county is representative of a part of the EU, respectively for the continental, northern, south, and east.
The full R script is available on GitHub.
2 Data & Methods
The data used in this paper are the data of 2012 col- lected by the ISSP. I choose this data set because it has a discrete number of questions regarding GR:
1. [V5] A working mother can establish just as warm and secure a relationship with her chil- dren as a mother who does not work;
2. [V6] A preschool child is likely to suffer if his or her mother works;
3. [V7] All in all, family life suffers when the woman has a full-time job;
4. [V8] A job is all right, but what most women really want is a home and children;
5. [V9] Being a housewife is just as fulfilling as working for pay;
6. [V10] Both the man and woman should con- tribute to the household income;
7. [V11] Man’s job is to earn money; a woman’s job is to look after the home and family;